Our Saga

Long ago, in the old world, mead was hailed as the elixir of the gods; dew sent from the heavens and collected by the bees. These messengers of gods also pollinated the apple trees protected by the goddess, Idun, whose fruit granted the gods immortality.

Sadly, the divine power of mead has long since faded due to rising honey costs, and Prohibition caused farmers to chop down their orchards, thus destroying the cider industry.

But hope is not lost! We capture an astonishing fusion of Old World style and New World creativity to bring you the finest mead and cider this side of Valhalla...Welcome to Twisted Horn!

The Twisted Horn Epic Saga: The birth of a legend

Long ago in a time far away, a boy chose the life of adventure. It was a decision to leave the ordinary behind for a life full of the extraordinary. Many a day was spent gathering his friends and heading off on quests and fantastical journeys.

One day after a successful campaign, he and his party, wary from action, stopped at a road-side inn. The bar keep offered him a strange drink. It was something unknown to him, something called mead. This strange brew was similar to beer and wine, but different. He noted that cost-wise it fell right between the two; beer cost 5 coppers, wine cost 5 pieces of silver, but this thing called mead was only 2 pieces of silver. So what was this thing called mead? No idea, but if it costs more than beer, it must be pretty good.

The boy grew into a young man and continued to thirst for adventure. He joined the military and traveled the world. Eventually he made his way to Norway. Naturally, when faced with the question of what to do with “down time” the logical answer was to seek out the local tavern and interact with the good Norwegian people. Little did he know his life would take a twist on that fateful day. As he entered the establishment and looked about, lo and behold, there right before his eyes was the word Mjod (mead), and it was for sale! What was once an unknown word in a book had appeared before him and it was good. Suffice to say, more than 2 silver pieces were spent on mead while in Norway.

Upon his return to the states, he was dismayed to learn that the golden elixir was not to be found. Ever resourceful and determined to recreate that beautiful libation that haunted his dreams, he attempted to craft his own mead but with little success. This failure coupled with the military way of life, always on the move, made it impossible to make good mead and the dream slipped away.

Many years later he felt something stir within him, something from the past. This awareness grew, substantiated by a string of strange events that would prove to be, in no uncertain terms, life altering. One day he found himself standing in the path of a swarm of thousands of bees. Rather than run for cover, he simply stood there...captivated by the mass as they passed by his body. Later, the well intended owl nest box was hijacked and occupied by a bee colony. Then, one day, he noticed a worker bee at his feet and realized that she was close to the end of her life. He picked her up and without provocation he received her sting, yet strangely enough, it did not hurt. Instead, it crystallized his resolve to craft and enjoy mead once again.

Mead mania filled his mind as he tracked down and consumed all of the books and articles on mead that he could find. Ingredients were sourced and the first batch was made. After a painstakingly long wait it was ready, and it tasted of his dreams. Quickly the bathroom was filled with bubbling fermentors. Running out of space, he moved to the kitchen, and then to the garage. Friends and family raved about his hand-crafted mead and encouraged him to take it to the masses.

How would he accomplish this great and arduous task? Fortunately, he knew someone...a friend with almost thirteen years of experience in home-brewing, who had already mapped business plans twice for a brewery of his own, with expertise in managing a start-up and extensive knowledge in project management. It was a partnership that could only have occurred due to divine intervention.

But let's not just stop at mead, the friend said. Let's add another craft alcohol you can't really find very easily anywhere else. Something familiar and more approachable, yet a seemingly forgotten and almost lost fermenting art...hard cider! And so the friend embarked on a cider journey he had never been on before. His years of brewing experience brought a unique twist to the conventional hard cider you might find in the commercial setting...a drink that is overly back-sweetened and lacking in creativity. He played with unique combinations of flavors, apple bases, and different yeast strains to give what can be a bland background an enticing complexity n'er to be found in the craft cider industry.

And so, the two friends journeyed together, along with their families, on a brave adventure of fermenting, bringing back the Old World style with New World creativity, to bring you the best mead and cider this side of Valhalla!